what do you do with your pack while at camp

I am waiting on a new CCS guide pack for this season and because it is a pricey pack I am a little concerned about mice chewing through it. Does this happen? If so any suggestions on how to minimise it happening?

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

double zip lock every thing food related,, a small plastic food barrel is a good option. ask to get some olive barrels from a greek restaurant. they are ideal ,after a very good cleaning. i leave mine outside all winter to blow the sink off it is not so much the mice, beware of the squirrels, little bastards have been known get into food packs. and coons are a pain. i use a two ropes for hanging stuff on a tree branch. one has a pulley on the end,, the other rope goes into the pulley. and up the pack goes,, very easy with a heavier bundle. i hope this helps.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

swedish pimple wrote:

double zip lock every thing food related,, a small plastic food barrel is a good option. ask to get some olive barrels from a greek restaurant. they are ideal ,after a very good cleaning. i leave mine outside all winter to blow the sink off it is not so much the mice, beware of the squirrels, little bastards have been known get into food packs. and coons are a pain. i use a two ropes for hanging stuff on a tree branch. one has a pulley on the end,, the other rope goes into the pulley. and up the pack goes,, very easy with a heavier bundle. i hope this helps.

Thanks swedish,good tips. I understand the food items need to hoisted or left away from camp in a bear vault or something similar. I am more talking about your pack that is likely mostly empty. I will be leaving my cleaned cooking stuff likely by the fire, all food and scented items will be away from camp. Do you hoist your pack separately to your bear bag or are they one in the same?

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

I leave my pack and the rest of my gear (other than food/scents which get hung) on half of a tarp, and fold over the other half and weigh it down with rocks on the corners/perimeter. If you do it properly it will keep everything dry, even during storms. So by the time I go to sleep everything is in one of three places, the tent, the tarp, or hung in the trees, nothing really left lying around camp.

Even when I travel with my food in a dry sack within my pack (instead of a separate barrel), I hang the dry sack overnight and have never had any issues with animals, mice, etc. getting into my pack under the tarp from any lingering scents.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

Ever since a chipmunk ate through one of my brothers packs, (wasn’t any food in it) we have been hanging them on a line off of the ground - so far (at least for the last few years) we haven’t had any more issues

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

If there is room in the tent I keep it in there with me. If not I just use a tarp outside near the tent. I've been to algonquin about 20 times for 3 nights each time and never had a mouse or anything chew into our packs.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

I usually search the campsite I'm on for either a nail in the tree or the perfect broken branch at the right height to hang my pack from the top grab handle. It makes adding/removing items super easy, typically because its on a tree trunk there is enough foliage above that if it does start to rain, unless its a downpour its not much of a concern. I keep it zipped up when I'm not putting things in/out. Never have a had anything chew through a pack doing this and I've been doing it for years. I use a SealLine dry bag exclusively for food or scented items, no food items or packaging ever even come in contact with my pack, no matter what they are in a dry bag, my pocket, or belly.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

trippythings wrote:

I leave my pack and the rest of my gear (other than food/scents which get hung) on half of a tarp, and fold over the other half and weigh it down with rocks on the corners/perimeter. If you do it properly it will keep everything dry, even during storms. So by the time I go to sleep everything is in one of three places, the tent, the tarp, or hung in the trees, nothing really left lying around camp.

Even when I travel with my food in a dry sack within my pack (instead of a separate barrel), I hang the dry sack overnight and have never had any issues with animals, mice, etc. getting into my pack under the tarp from any lingering scents.

Thanks trippythings,it looks like pack intruders are rare. Do you tarp your gear because of weather or curious animals?

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

Andy W wrote:

Ever since a chipmunk ate through one of my brothers packs, (wasn’t any food in it) we have been hanging them on a line off of the ground - so far (at least for the last few years) we haven’t had any more issues

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

Andy W wrote:

Ever since a chipmunk ate through one of my brothers packs, (wasn’t any food in it) we have been hanging them on a line off of the ground - so far (at least for the last few years) we haven’t had any more issues

Thanks Andy, hopefully it wasn't an expensive pack. I am likely the idea of keeping it off the ground.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

vanslyke wrote:

If there is room in the tent I keep it in there with me. If not I just use a tarp outside near the tent. I've been to algonquin about 20 times for 3 nights each time and never had a mouse or anything chew into our packs.

Thanks vanslyke, if you put your gear under a tarp do you just leave it on the ground?

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

ATVenture wrote:

I usually search the campsite I'm on for either a nail in the tree or the perfect broken branch at the right height to hang my pack from the top grab handle. It makes adding/removing items super easy, typically because its on a tree trunk there is enough foliage above that if it does start to rain, unless its a downpour its not much of a concern. I keep it zipped up when I'm not putting things in/out. Never have a had anything chew through a pack doing this and I've been doing it for years. I use a SealLine dry bag exclusively for food or scented items, no food items or packaging ever even come in contact with my pack, no matter what they are in a dry bag, my pocket, or belly.

Thanks ATVenture, I like that plan, I have seen video of people lashing a branch perpendicular to the tree and hanging their packs from the shoulder straps.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

R2 wrote:

trippythings wrote:

I leave my pack and the rest of my gear (other than food/scents which get hung) on half of a tarp, and fold over the other half and weigh it down with rocks on the corners/perimeter. If you do it properly it will keep everything dry, even during storms. So by the time I go to sleep everything is in one of three places, the tent, the tarp, or hung in the trees, nothing really left lying around camp.

Even when I travel with my food in a dry sack within my pack (instead of a separate barrel), I hang the dry sack overnight and have never had any issues with animals, mice, etc. getting into my pack under the tarp from any lingering scents.

Thanks trippythings,it looks like pack intruders are rare. Do you tarp your gear because of weather or curious animals?

A little bit of weather, animals, and organization. It's the best way to keep everything dry without bringing it near the tent, and it helps prevent animals from getting too curious. It won't stop things like mice, but if some mid-large animals are roaming the campsite, it keeps it more out of reach to them. But organization is also really important for me, I like knowing where everything is at all times and not leaving things behind when moving campsites... so everything is kept in the tarp overnight (most of it within the pack, within the tarp) and things are always easy to find when needed since I know everything is either in the tent, tarp, or hung in the tree.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

R2 wrote:

vanslyke wrote:

If there is room in the tent I keep it in there with me. If not I just use a tarp outside near the tent. I've been to algonquin about 20 times for 3 nights each time and never had a mouse or anything chew into our packs.

Thanks vanslyke, if you put your gear under a tarp do you just leave it on the ground?

Yup! My group and I always have a few extra back packs with us for random gear like hatchets, lanterns, toilet paper, fishing equipment, etc. Those always just go on the ground somewhere around camp and get covered by a tarp at night or if it rains. We try to find somewhere that is pretty flat and is sligtly protected by a tree canopy. Its usually bone dry under the tarp unless we get an epic storm. Anyone that doesn't have room in their tent for their personal pack they put it under there as well. Having a ground sheet for them isn't a bad idea though if you have an extra tarp or one big enough to roll over on stuff like others have said.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

I use my pack to stuff in all empty other ones, then hang on an existing nail or branch stub. The large SEAL line pack (waterproof rubber) is used as a mat in front of the door in the vestibule area to Make it easier to get shoes on or off into the tent, or to sit on with the door open if it's cold or windy and I wanna take shelter from it. The only rodent issues I had was with an squirrel who ate 4 holes in my inner tent one year. Nothing with any smell was kept in the tent. He must have been just plain bored. The other one was at rock lake campground a few years back where there was a mouse infestation on 1 site and the people beside me had 24 mouse traps set up that kept snapping shut every few minutes through the night. ( I'm still grinding my teeth over that one). Unfortunately, 3 mice ended up in my van somehow and were trucked home, where it took some time before they disappeared.

Re: what do you do with your pack while at camp

Mice. Those little stinkers. Last summer when we went to hang the food bag on Islet, all of a sudden there were mice seemingly everywhere. I put the bag down to prepare the rope to hang it, and as I was in the act of lowering the bag to put it on the ground, a mouse came out from under a tree root next to my foot and just about met the spot where I put the bag. And that little guy was not the least bit intimidated by my presence. I'd stomp my foot close to it, and it would barely flinch. I kept expecting it to dash up my pantleg. I tied the top of the food bag like I've never tied the top of it before, hoisted it into the tree, and wished it a fond farewell. Buttoned up the packs pretty tight as well, but did not hang them. The mice were all so bold around us I wondered about that decision.

I expected to see evidence of little visitors the next morning, but fortunately none. We remained in that site for the following night, and it was like word had spread among the mice - "no food here". We saw maybe one mouse on the second night.